Abstract

This revision is much better than the original paper I wrote in 2012, especially from Section XXV on. In it I tell of Einstein’s struggles to put his theories into words. I also tell how he used some of his thought experiments to try to help him do this. They turned out to be of little use however. In one of them the participant believed he was feeling the force of gravity when it was really the force of acceleration. In another one the gravity he believed he was feeling turned out to be centrifugal force. And in still another, instead of being based on real-world things like gravity, it worked through abstractions like curved lines that were infinitely close to each other, thus being of no practical use for anything.

The format of this paper is twofold. When quoting or paraphrasing what I believe to be are Einstein’s key points in each chapter (Section) of his book, I use a Regular Cambria font. My comments, analysis, criticism and questions are made in a Bold Face Italic Cambria font. When in the latter mode, I occasionally take the liberty of expanding his own wording when I believe that he is being too terse or compressed in his narrative.